What would you recommend to anglers fishing in Cortez, Florida for the first time?

If you go on a charter with a competent captain you can learn technique and they will teach you what to Target so you can be successful and fishing on your own if you would like to do that later that eliminates a lot of time in determining what to do in a strange location that you're not familiar with people need to appreciate the captain's experience and techniques to learn from it and then apply your own experience to it

In shore 1/2 day trip provides opportunity to catch a lot of fish, keep a few (due to size restrictions), and to move around to several locations if one or more are slow. Great option for those who struggle with motion sickness. Sarasota Bay tends to be calm, beautiful, and fun.

Hire a guide if you are fishing for the first time in Cortez. We recommend Terry Ray Talbert.

Yes. There were fish to catch. Nothing large enough to keep but still great fun.

Be ready to make memories and catch lots of fish. We caught a lot but were only able to keep 3.

February fishing with Captain Terry was good. As water temperature warms it will be Great! More fish will become more active as spring advances.

If you're doing a near shore trip, definitely do the 6 hour trip. I'm glad we did. With the travel time to the fishing spots that were 7-10 miles out, 4 hours wouldn't have been enough.

Captain Terry Talbert is an excellent guide, patient, a good teacher and will put you on fish.

The recent cold spell dampened the fishing a little, but we still had a great time.